For background on the migration from New England to Nova Scotia see: "The New Englander of Nova Scotia" by Anne Borden Harding, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, taken from The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol. CXVI, No. 461., January 1962, pg. 3-13.

From the Freeman Families of Nova Scotia ... (Page 390):

Elisha Freeman, born 1701, was the great-grandson of Samuel Freeman, immigrant ancestor of the Freeman's of Watertown Massachusetts. In 1725 he married Lydia Freeman, born 1703, the great-granddaughter of Edmond Freeman, immigrant ancestor of the Freeman's of Sandwich, Massachusetts.

Some historians have inferred that the immigrant ancestors of these two branches of Freeman Families were brothers. The relationship was based on conjecture as no evidence has been found to substantiate that theory. In fact, known records refute the suggestion that they were brothers. The Parish Register of St. Ann Church, Blackfriars, London, England indicates that Samuel Freeman's only surviving brother was named John. The Register of the Parish Church in Pulborough, Sussex County, England shows that Edmond Freeman's two brothers, William and John, both died in England.

Elisha and Lydia were both born in Eastham, New England, but soon after their marriage removed to that part of Rochester which is now Matapoisett, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, where they became members of The First Congregational Church. They were the parents of twelve children, all born in Rochester, and it was there that Lydia died at the age of fifty two years on 30 Dec. 1755.

Elisha was fifty-four years old when Lydia died, leaving him with a large family to raise, the youngest about six years old. About two years later, on 23 April 1758, an intention to marry between Elisha Freeman of Rochester, and Mariah Alline of Chilmark was recorded in the Vital Records of Rochester.

In a proclamation dated 12 October 1758, Governor Lawrence of Nova Scotia offered many inducements for the people in New England to settle in Nova Scotia, and this offer was confirmed by the Council of Nova Scotia on 11 January 1759. That same year a group of men in New England appointed, from among themselves, Captain John Doggett, Samuel Doggett, Elisha Freeman and Thomas Foster as a committee on their behalf to petition for a township in
that Province, and their petition was approved.

Probably Elisha and his wife Mariah had made plans and preparations for the removal of themselves and family to Nova Scotia, but Mariah died, and following is the record of her death in the Vital Records of Rochester: Moriah (sic) wife of Elisha Freeman, Esq., of Rochester, Massachusetts, 21 February 1761.

It has been written that Elisha removed to Liverpool soon after the death of his wife. Lydia died in 1755, and Elisha didn't remove to Liverpool until 1761, a period of about six years, which scarcely qualifies as soon. Therefore, the written statement is true, but applies to his second wife, Mariah.

In May 1761, Captain John Doggett, one of the committee of four was instructed by the government of Nova Scotia to hire a ship for the purpose of removing twenty families from New England to the new township in Nova Scotia. Perhaps it was on that ship that Elisha and his children made the voyage to their new home. In the same year, Governor Lawrence issued a warrant of survey, and appointed John and Samuel Doggett, Nathan Torrey, Nathan Tupper and Elisha Freeman as a committee to lay out the lands for the township which was to be named Liverpool.

Elisha was one of the original proprietors of Liverpool Township, as were his four oldest sons. In December 1761 his son, Barnabas returned to Rochester where he married Thankful Dennis, and subsequently both returned to Liverpool to make their home.

Elisha was a merchant and the owner of a saw mill. He was also the town clerk of Liverpool, and the first entry in the original book of records is in his handwriting, dated 29 February 1762. He signed the book, Elisha Freeman, Proprietor's Clerk.

He was a Justice of Peace for Liverpool Township, and a Lieutenant in the Militia in 1762. In 1764 he was one of the first Justices of the Interior Court of Common Pleas for Queens County, and was also the Judge of Probate. He was a member of the Legislative Assembly for Liverpool Township from 1765 to 1767.

Elisha spent his final years with his daughter Lydia and her husband, Timothy Burbank. He died 19 May 1777 at the age of seventy five years, and was buried, according to Simeon Perkins, on 20 May 1777.

This is a copy of the Will of Elisha Freeman, Liverpool, 1777 from PANS film 20112, p. 48-49.
(All in same hand including signatures.)

In the name of God amen the fourth day of April in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy four I Elisha Freeman of Liverpool in the County of Queens County (sic) in Nova Scotia, Gentleman being far advanced in years but of perfect mind and memory thanks be given to god for the same Calling to mind the mortality of my body and knowing that it is appointed for all men to Die do make and ordain this my last will and Testament that is to say .......

First of all I give and Recommend (?) My Soul unto the hands of God that gave it and for my body I Recommend it to the Earth to be buried in a Christian Like and Decent manner at the discretion of my Executor nothing Doubting but at the General Redemption I shall Receive the Same again by the might (sic) power of God as touching Such worldly estate wherewith it has pleased God to bless me for this life I give devise and dispose of the Same in the following manner and form -

1. I give and bequeath to my two Grandsons Elkanah and Elisha Freeman sons to my son Elisha Freeman deceased the South Easterly (?) half of my Dwelling house as though it were an Intestate Estate Letter according to Law

2. I give to my Daughter Mary Freeman the one Half of the North Westerly half of my Dwelling House with all my household furniture and one thirty acre Lot of Land in Letter No. B ... as Blackpoint so called with one half of three Town Lots Late Executed by Law .... Also my Great Bible

(no number) I Give to my son Zoheth Freeman two thirds parts of my Right in Lands in Liverpool (viz) one share The other half of the North Westerly half of my Dwelling house with the other half of the three Town Lots of Land and the rest of my lands in Liverpool my barn my Right in the Sawmill my Books and what else I have to be Equally Divided amongst all my children and appoint and ordain my son Simeon Freeman Sole Executor of this my Last Will and Testament
etc.

Signed Sealed and Delivered by the said Elisha Freeman in the presence of:

"...Elisha Freeman and John Doggett were commissioned as justices of the peace for the township of Liverpool on May 23, 1760..."

Glen C. Bodie notes:

He was a Pioneer of Queens. Elisha was descended from the Samuel Freeman line and his wife, Lydia, from the Edmund Freeman line. "Freeman Genealogy" mentions two other daughters, Patience and Hope, but gives no information about them, and does not mention daughters Joan, Eunice, and Mary. [8, 9, 10, 11]

[S667] The New England Historical & Genealogical Register, http://homepages.rootsweb.com/%7Edownhome/newenglander.html (Reliability: 0).
“The New Englander of Nova Scotia”
"The New Englander of Nova Scotia" by Anne Borden Harding, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, taken from The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Vol. CXVI, No. 461., January 1962, pg. 3-13.

In "The Neutral Yankee of Nova Scotia", John Bartlett Brebner considers the question: What changed the New England Republican of 1760 into the British North American? The implication is that this change took place during the years between 1775 and 1784. Nothing could be further from the truth. The transition required more than fifty years. The ravaging of the coast of Nova Scotia by privateers in two wars, the invasion of British Canada by the United States during the War of 1812, and the change in the concept of government in Great Britain from the autocratic rule of the House of Hanover to the beginnings of one of the truly democratic governments of our time contributed to it. Although the War of 1812 was so unpopular in New England that representatives of the six states met in Hartford, Connecticut, and threatened secession, the New Englander of Nova Scotia still found himself engaged in war against overwhelmingly superior forces. In the words of the former Canadian national anthem:

The struggle probably laid the foundation for the Canada of today since, for the first time, the son of New England was brought to the realization that while New England had remained to him a motherland, the United States had for the most part forgotten his sonship.

A new and different people had emerged from the amalgamation of the old settlers and the new immigrants who had come in waves during the quartercentury after the Revolution to the shores of the thirteen original colonies, and New England had lost her leading position in the affairs of the nation. The New Englander is ever a realist and transplantation to the soil of Nova Scotia had not made him less so. Since there was nothing to be gained by looking southwestward, he would henceforth look eastward to Britain. How determinedly he cut himself off from remembrance of the past is best illustrated by the fact that in a census of Yarmouth County in the 1880s the descendants of those men who on 8 December 1775 appealed to be allowed to maintain a position of neutrality because: "We were almost all of us born in New England,"1 gave their national origin as "English".

Throughout the hundred years from 1660 to 1760 the New Englander fought again and again for Nova Scotia with very little help from the mother country.While the struggle between France and England in Europe was power politics, in the Colonies it was self-preservation. As long as the French-conceived attacks sent the Indians against the isolated inhabitants of New York and Maine, the British must hug the shores and could make little progress in expanding their settlements and their commerce.2 Many times the men from Massachusetts with the help of New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island had conquered Nova Scotia only to have a treaty, made in Europe, return it to France. In the invasion of 1709-10, Massachusetts sent 3,250 men, exclusive of officers, New Hampshire sent 304 officers and men, and Connecticut sent 516 officers and men. After 1711 Annapolis Royal remained in the hands of the British forces but it was to Boston that the Governors must look for men and money to repair and maintain it.3

The New Englanders to Nova Scotia

At Louisburg in 1745, 4,000 Massachusetts men, 500 Connecticut men, 300 New Hampshire men, and 300 men from Rhode Island under General William Pepperell subdued the fortress but again England returned Cape Breton to the French.4 Not until the Seven Years War did England supply either men or money in sufficient quantity to accomplish her purpose of completely destroying French power in North America. As always New England sent her full complement of men
to aid in the struggle and at Beausejour alone there were 2,000 men from Massachusetts.

With Nova Scotia firmly in the hands of the English in 1759, Governor Lawrence looked southward for settlers for his Province. The Cornwallis colonization had proven a disappointment. The terms of settlement offered to the "officers and private men lately dismissed from His Majesty's Service" and to "carpenters, shipwrights, smiths, masons, joiners, brickmakers, bricklayers, and all other artificers" had been generous---"50 acres in fee simple to every private soldier or seaman, free from the payment of any quit rents or taxes for ten years at the expiration thereof no person to pay more than one shilling per annum for every 50 acres so granted." The officers were to have up to 600 acres for men above the rank of Captain on the same terms. The settlers were to be "subsisted during the passage and for twelve months after their arrival" and they were to be given "materials and utensils for husbandry, clearing and cultivating the land, erecting habitations, carrying on the fisheries, and such other purposes as shall be deemed necessary for
their support"5

Despite all the help given by the mother country to the first pioneers of Halifax County and to the German, Swiss and French Protestants later induced to emigrate, the attempts had been failures. At the height of her prosperity Halifax had an estimated 6000+ inhabitants. In 1760 there were at Halifax 3,000+ persons--disappointed immigrants from England; peasants from the Continent; camp followers, sutlers, and contractors from New England eager for public money. Disease had taken a heavy toll of the early settlers and others who had little liking for the hard work of pioneering new settlements had left for the better established older colonies.

Before 1755, 1,300 German, Swiss, and French Huguenots had formed their own community at Lunenburg. If Nova Scotia were to be the prosperous Province of Governor Lawrence's dream, sturdy, resourceful men of New England must be induced to make their homes there.

The terms offered to the Colonials were vastly different from those granted to the English and Continental settlers of 1749-50. About all that Governor Lawrence could promise them was the bare land, "full liberty of conscience, and members of dissenting congregations to be excused from tithes to support the Church of England."6 Everywhere throughout New England were former soldiers and seamen, fishermen and traders who knew at first hand the potential wealth of Nova Scotia and who doubtless knew also the report of Engineer Paul Mascarene in which he states:

"The soil produces wheat, rye, barley, oats, all manner of pulse, garden roots, and herbs, and abounds in cattle and plenty tame and wild fowl... It is no less rich in its produce that relates to trade...Its woods are filled with Oak, Fir Pine of all sorts fit for masts, Pitch, Tar, Beach Maple, Ash, Birch Asp, etc..."“There are also undoubtedly several iron mines and Copper mines, the latter at Cape Dore....there are good coal mines and quarry of soft stone near Chignecto Cumberland and at Missisquash cove ten leagues from Annapolis Royal, as also in St. Johns River, very good and plenty of white marble is found which turns into very good lime...but the most material is the fishing of Cod which all the coasts abound with and seems to be inexhaustible." 7

Within a matter of months settlers began to trickle into the Province from various communities in New England. The first settlers at Yarmouth were three families from Sandwich, Massachusetts, and two from Connecticut, Campbell's and G.S. Brown's histories of Yarmouth give us a complete record of the settlement of that township with the former residences of all settlers. Although in October 1763 Morris and Buldely reported: "Yarmouth has also about fifty families, few among them of ability,...are in the same situation as Barrington,"8 in 1767 the township, with 78 families totalling 379 persons, had "2 grist mills, 2 saw mills, 3 fishing vessels and 10 schooners & sloops, 1 horse, 72 oxen and bulls, 217 cows, 184 young meat cattle, 354 sheep, 103 swine; had raised 76 bushels of wheat, 420 bushels of rye, 290 bushels of barley, 194 bushels of oats, 8 bushels of flax see, 6 hundreds of flax; had produced 1935 qtls. of 'merchantable' cod, 20 bbls. Of salmon, mackerel, etc., 22 bbls. of oil;" had sawed 56 thousand feet of board lumber.9

Barrington which on 1 July 1762 returned "141 persons, 48 from Nantucket, 93 from Plymouth"10 and which suffered the same disparagement by Morris and Buldely, in Lieutenant Governor Franklin's report, although lagging in agricultural production, makes the impressive showing of "2263 qtls. of cod, 68 bbls. of salmon, mackerel, etc., and 32 bbls. of oil"11 and compares favorable with Canso, the acknowledged fishing capital of the North Atlantic and also with Halifax.

Liverpool, settled by families from Plymouth, Kingston, Eastman, and Chatham, Massachusetts, was engaged mostly with lumbering, shipbuilding , fisheries, and the carrying trade. Her sloops and schooners plied between Newfoundland and Liverpool and between Liverpool and the Atlantic ports, bringing the cured fish, walrus teeth, whale oil, and other products of the north to Nova Scotia, the Colonies, and the West Indies and returning laden with the exotics and manufactured hands of the official reporters than her sister ports of the South Shore. 12 Governor Lawrence, on his visit in August 1760, expressed his gratification at the progress made in so short a time. A grist mill and saw mill had been erected and her shipyards were busy building fishing boats, schooners and sloops.13

The Diary, which Simeon Perkins kept over a period of fifty years, has left us a clearer picture of his town and land settlements. The return of 1767 shows "23 fishing boats and 15 schooners and sloops, 1 grist mill and 5 saw mills,"14 Besides plying her brisk carrying trade, she had cured 4762 qtls. of cod, produced 383 bbls. of salmon and mackerel, and 34 bbls.of oil, sawed 335 M. feet of board lumber and raised enough grains and stock to sustain her citizens.15

The fourth of the fishing townships reported to the Lords of Trade by Govermor Lawrence on 20 September 1759 was probably Chester with its beautiful basin and its nearness to both timberland and fishing ground. The thirty families who came with their minister, the Rev. John Seccombe, from Massachusetts had grown to 231 pesons by 1766 of whom 175 were Americans, 17 English, 17 Scottish, 11 Irish, and 11 Germans, Swiss and Huguenot.

Since the township returns for 1766 and 1770 have not survived we do not have an accurate list of the families but the yield from their acres and the amount of fish caught, cured, salted and barrelled speak well for their industry.16

The agricultural towns of the Annapolis Valley and what is now Cumberland County and the Bay Shore of New Brunswick, Horton, Cornwallis, Falmouth, Granville, Onslow, Truro, Sackville, and possibly Moncton, were the nine agricultural townships mentioned by Governor Lawrence in his July 1759 letter to the Lords of Trade. The "six or eight townships more" were probably the figments of the fertile brains of Colonel McNutt and his fellows.17 Certainly Governor Lawrence had been approached before 20 April 1759 by representatives of "associated substantial families" who wished to found "2 or more townships" in Minas Basin.18 These were the Connecticut and Rhode Island planters who eventually made up the citizenry of Horton, Cornwallis, Falmouth, and Granville.

In his "History of King's County, Dr. A. W. H. Eaton has quoted verbatim the text of the first grant of Cornwallis and has listed the names of those who received subsequent grants in Horton and Cornwallis.19 Perhaps because a score or more of the original grantees left Horton before the first township census it has been assumed that many of them never came to Nova Scotia.

From a search of the King's County deeds and the records at the Provincial Department of Lands and Forests, Halifax, it appears that they were in Horton at some time, if only for a short period, and many were large land owners. Several had died between the time of the granting of the lots and the settlement of the community. One of these was Micajah Pride, the son of Capt. William Pride of Norwich, Conn., and the brother of William Pride, also a grantee who brought with him to Horton Micajah's son Joseph, possibly with the intent of protecting the child's rights in his father's property.

Original Grantees of Township of Horton

In the files of the Nova Scotia Archives at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, there is the original grant of the township of Horton to the following men "all from Connecticut":-

R.G. Huling in the "Narragansett Historical Register", vol. 7, p. 89-135, 1889, deals with the Rhode Island families who left that colony to make their homes in Falmouth, Granville, and Sackville and to add new settlers to the established townships. The population of Sackville was augmented in 1768 by the coming of the total membership of a Baptist church from Swansea,
Mass., under the leadership of the Rev. Nathaniel Mason. 20

The Groups that settled Onslow, Truro, and Londonderry were partly Irish and partly American. Possibly the greater number of those listed as Irish were actually 'Scotch-Irish' who had lived for some time in Londonderry, N.H. and thereabouts and had intermarried with the older English-American families. The fact that the church records of Londonderry have not been
preserved makes it impossible to say with certainty which of the Irish of Nova Scotia were from this group but genealogy after genealogy in Miller's work cites Londonderry as the home of the family before the immigration to Colchester Country. 21

Each year of the early 1760s saw the beginning of one or more settlements until, in 1766, there were 30 townships listed. Miramachi, St. John’s River, the Cape Sable towns of Argyle and Pubnico, and the overlooked community of Ragged Islands raises the total to 34. In June 1762 a group of descendants of the soldiers who fought in the abortive invasion of Canada in 1690 under William Phipps and who were rewarded for their services by a belated grant of land in Rowley, Canada, now Rindge, N.H., left that place to settle the St. John’s Valley. 22 The excellent work by W. C. Milner known as 'The Records of Chignecto' covers the settlement of the present Cumberland County and the eastern shore of New Brunswick.

In 1756, many of the Acadians, who the year before had been transported to South Carolina and Georgia, had procured boats and made their way back to their former homes where they joined the Indians in harassing and killing the settlers. Because of this, the Acadian inhabitants of Cape Sable, descendants of the French aristocrats who had come to New France with Claude and Charles de la Tour, came under suspicion. They were innocent of any complicity in the crimes and had petitioned Gov. Thomas Pownall of Massachusetts to allow them to settle in Massachusetts if they were not to be allowed to stay in their dearly loved home in Acadia since "we had all rather die here than go to any French Dominions to live" 23

They were willing to take the oaths of allegiance, pay their yearly taxes, and support and maintain the war against the king of France. 24 Despite all this and despite the intervention on their behalf by Governor Pownall and General Amherst, the government at Halifax in the spring of 1759 swooped down upon them and loaded 152 men , women, and children on board a transport bound for England. 25 It was this tragic incident, dealt with in the papers of the Rev. Andrew Brown, which fell into the hands of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and served as a basis for his story-poem "Evangeline."

Readers of the poem have been under the impression that the settlers of the Annapolis Valley sat down in a land flowing with milk and honey prepared for them by the Normandy peasant whose industry and culture far exceeded their own. When we examine the records we discover how far from the truth is this notion. In the first place, the Acadians of the Bay of Fundy region were of a completely different stock from the aristocratic Frenchmen of the Cape Sable townships. Like the voyageurs of French Canada the Acadian of the Minas and Chignecto regions were peasants--no better and no worse than others of their kind -- who had intermarried to some extent with the Indians.26

Paul Mascarene, himself a native of France, in his report of 1720 states: "The French inhabitants of Bay of Fundy beside are very little industrious; their lands have not improved as might be expected, they living in a manner from hand to mouth, and provided they have a good field of Cabbages and Bread enough for their families, with what fodder is sufficient for their cattle they seldom look for much further improvement."27

And 12 Sept. 1745, Messrs. De Beauharnais and Hocquart writing to the Count De Maurepas concerning the same inhabitants: "The Acadians have not extended their plantations since they have come under English domination; their houses are wretched wooden boxes without conveniences and without ornament and scarcely containing the most necessary furniture; but they are extremely covetous of specie. Since the settlement of Ile Royale they have drawn from Louisburg by means of their trade in cattle and all the other provisions almost all the specie the King annually sent out; it never makes its appearance again, they are particularly careful to conceal it."

He goes on to say that the specie is being hoarded to facilitate their removal to Quebec.28 These two reports present a much less glamorous picture of the land the New Englanders inherited.

There have been many misleading representations of the New Englander in Nova Scotia. The officials at Halifax were fond of the expression "men of ability." By this they meant simply men of money which seems to have been their measure of the worth of all men.

The early immigrants, who had spent their substance in making a start in a new land which for the first few years proved so unfriendly that some settlements would have been unable to carry on without some help form the Province, were of very little account in the estimation of the bureaucrats who drew their livings from administering the civil affairs of these same men.

The journal of Robinson and Riston 29 has been quoted often to prove that the new inhabitant of the Minas Basin was a slothful and inefficient farmer. To the visitors from Yorkshire, where, to wrest a living from the barren and uncooperative soil, one must rise at the first streak of dawn and labour until dusk, the farmers of the lush valleys of Nova Scotia who did not begin their labours until seven o'clock, rotated their crops, and cultivated only part of their acreage while the rest lay fallow for nature to renew, were sadly wanting in industry. That in such a fertile land and such a climate, excessive labour was unnecessary and wasteful of men's time was a concept they were totally unprepared by experience to accept.

Who were the men who between 1759 and 1775 left their homes in New England to start anew in Nova Scotia? Were they, as had been represented, the newcomers and failures of the older colonies? Not at all. A glance at the genealogies of these settlers shows that they are the descendants of the oldest and most prominent families of New England. The roster of their ancestors reads like a roll of ancestors of the Society of Mayflower Descendants, The Society of Colonial Wars, and the Colonial Dames of America.

The fact that the majority of these people were dissenters has received very little attention from historians. Although both Yarmouth and Liverpool were settled by nominal Congregationalists, the speed with which their people embraced the new doctrine of Methodism demonstrates how lightly they held to their denominational beliefs.

The settlers along the Bay of Fundy were descendants of the Baptists and Quakers who sought refuge in Rhode Island and Nantucket from the Puritan persecution, of the antinomians who joined the Rev. John Wheelwright in exile in New Hampshire, and of the supporters of Cromwell's Commonwealth who, in Connecticut at the risk of life and fortune, had hidden the regicides from the wrath of the King's party after the Restoration of 1660.

Although many Salem families such as the Goochs, Loverings, Prides, Balchs, and Crawfords, who sought the obscurity of the hinterlands of Maine during the reign of Charles II, returned to Salem with the accession of William and Mary to the throne, it was not long before they had left the unfriendly climate of the royalist town to join themselves to the communities of like-minded Connecticut “Yankees."

The paucity of information concerning these people is due to a large extent to the fact that there are no church records to be consulted.

In spite of the fact that many of the offspring of Quaker parents did not continue in the faith of the fathers, they did not become reconciled to the established churches; many others were unchurched, though not irreligious; the Baptists kept a record only of the baptisms and church membership. As late as 1828 Capt. William Moonsom of the 52nd Light Infantry stationed at Halifax, writing home to England, states that one fourth of all the Protestant congregations in Nova Scotia were Baptist. 31

W. A. Calnek and A. W. Savary in their history of Annnapolis state that 10,027 out of 18,121 residents of the County of Annapolis were Baptists in 1871 and in the Annapolis returns of 1881 in a total population of 20,598 persons there were 11,199 Baptists.32

It is not to be wondered at, that the sons and grandsons of these men, remembering the disabilities under which their forebears had labored, passed in 1827 the Catholic Emancipation Act. To paraphrase Edmund Burke they desired liberty for their own because they trespassed on no man's conscience.

The misconceptions respecting the New Englanders who accepted Governor Lawrence's invitation are perhaps part and parcel of the misconceptions we entertain concerning the American colonies, England, and the world of that day.

The Industrial Revolution had not begun. Life was comparatively primitive at best. The three major enterprises mentioned by Edmund Burke in a speech 19 April 1774, fishing (including whaling), agriculture, and ship- building, were the areas in which everyone laboured. The civil servants were few; the professions were limited. Although a new class had sprung up to answer the need of government in London to find suppliers for their settlers and armed forces, their numbers were few and today we should call them war profiteers. Despite the limited field of employment the colonies
were enjoying prosperity. Edmund Burke says of them; "For my part I never cast an eye on their flourishing commerce and their cultivated and commodious life but they seem to me rather ancient nations grown to perfection through a long series of fortunate events and a train of successful industry accumulating wealth in many centuries than the colonies of yesterday."33

Again he speaks of their whale fishery: "Today they are in Hudson's Bay, the Davis Straits, and even the Antarctic.. There is no sea but what is vexed by their fisheries, no climate that does not witness their toils." The men of Nantucket and Cape Cod were sharers in these toils and these rich rewards. The word "substantial" was applied to them as well as to the Connecticut families. In William F. Macy, History of Nantucket, we read: "Under the circumstances no one would suppose that any of the inhabitants could feel an inclination to emigrate with their families to other places."

The term "neutral" has been applied to the Nova Scotia settlers during the American Revolution. Perhaps non-combatant would be a more exact term to use for the majority because support and comfort was given to the Colonial side, both tangilbly and intangible. We shall never know how many returned to Massachusetts and the other home colonies to fight in the revolutionary armies. Abraham Gesner gives the population of Nova Scotia as reported to the Board of Trade in 1772 as 18,300 and that of 1781 as 12,000. 34 These figures tell their own story.

The names of Hyatt Young of Liverpool and Jeremiah Frost, since they appear in the records, are known to most but the young men who went quietly, without fanfare, from their homes to return as quietly after 1782 are unnumbered. Some we know to have been in New England; others we can only surmise. The uprisings in St. John’s River and Chignecto have been carefully covered by W. C. Milner. 35

The Memorial to the Massachusetts Council, dated 25 Sept. 1779, from William Porterfield, John Matthews, Thomas Hayden, and Jonathan Lock of Ragged Islands protesting a raid on their homes by privateers armed with authority from the Continental Congress reads in part: "We in this Harbour who have done so much for America, that have helped 300 or 400 prisoners up along to America and given part of our living to them and have concealed Privateers and prizes, too, form the British Cruisers in this Harbour." 36

If the republicans of the central section of Nova Scotia were less revolutionary than those of Chignecto and Passamaquoddy, it may have been that they were older and more settled men. The "men of substance" who had expended so much money and effort in establishing themselves in the new Province and who had already suffered so much loss, much of it from the Revolution, could not easily risk their own and their children's future.

Also, many of the leaders of the revolutionary party in Massachusetts were known and distrusted by them. Men who had served in the Seven Years War had little reason to trust John Hancock and his partners 37 But if they gave little help to the Colonies they gave none to Halifax. They refused to take the Oath of Allegiance or to become militiamen or officers. On 31 July 1775 Governor Legge wrote to the Earl of Dartmouth: "Our inhabitants of Passamaquoddy and St. John's River are wholly form New England as are a greater part of the inhabitants of Annapolis Royal and those of the townships of Cornwallis, Horton, Falmouth, and Newport, some of them not forty miles from this township, that by reason of their connection with the people of New England, little or no dependence can be placed on the militia there to make any resistance against them." 38 Simeon Perkins, Colonel of Militia at Liverpool, was unable to find any men of officer material who
would serve with him. 39

When the fighting was over, however, and the Loyalists came to join them, families and friends who had taken opposite sides in the controversy sat down together, without rancour, at council table and in Assembly to build His Majesty's Province of Nova Scotia. Robert R. McLeod lists the leaders of Nova Scotia who were descendants of New Englanders, Loyalist and Pre-Loyalist, Thomas Chandler Haliburton, Sir Samuel Cunard, Governor Wentworth, Bishop Inglis, General Inglis, Bishop Binney, Sir Charles Tupper, W.S. Fielding, Dr. Borden , and Dr. Silas Rand, and adds: "The History of Nova Scotia cannot be written without giving a large place to the so-called Yankee element. We owe the American who came before the Loyalist a debt of gratitude for his sturdy insistence on the rights that were reluctantly granted by the English governors at Halifax."40

In speaking of their kind in the House of Commons, 17 March 1773, Edmund Burke said: "I think it as little in our power to change their republican religion as their free descent."